Lange time coming

Here's a thought provoking piece on new solutions to global poverty from Mark Lange, a former speech writer to George Bush (don't let that you put you off) in the Christian Science Monitor (ditto).

Like Paul Collier, he writes that we should focus on the billion people at the bottom of the pile; for him fighting relative inequality is a distraction with an unjustifiable opportunity cost.

There are some great ideas in here. The following practical suggestions really stood out for me:

• Linking the pay of managers in donor agencies to country-based outcomes
• Using vouchers as a form of development currency; the poor could exchange them with NGOs or other organisations for basic services
• Instituting an international minimum wage based on the country's PPP price of a basket of subsistence goods.